Disclaimer! I do not own Bungou Stray Dogs. The characters are owned by Kafka Asagiri and illustrated by Sango Harukawa. The only things I own are my storyline and OC's. I am not making money off of this story, nor do I plan to.
This story takes place sometime after season 3 of the anime. This can be seen as canon divergence as I do not follow the manga nor the light novels.
…...
The next day and one stop at the local convenience store later, she was at her destination.
The Armed Detective Agency was as bustling as ever once Chuuya dropped her off. He had been reluctant to drop her off in the first place before she had reminded him that meeting with the Armed Detective Agency would be a bad idea for him. He had finally relented and dropped her off with the promise that he'd be by later with the expectation of an update.
Charlie fiddled with her bag as she paused before the doors of the building. She was dressed a bit warmer, with a jumper and jacket over her suspenders and button-down shirt. Just as she reached for the handle, it burst open and promptly smacked her in the face. Then, in a mess of papers from her satchel and documents from the perpetrator who knocked her down, she fell entirely on her rear end and blinked, glasses and hair alike askew.
"I am so sorry!" Came a young voice, and she glanced up.
Average height, white hair cut in a choppy fashion, yellow-purple eyes that were wide with worry. The young man before her-likely several years younger than her if she had to wager a guess- wore a white button-down shirt, black trousers with suspenders, and black boots. He held a half-spilled pile of papers in his arms as he frantically tried to round up the rest of the documents flitting about and help her up at the same time.
Her eyes strayed to the man standing behind the boy. He was tall, with a plain angular face and dark brown hair styled in a bowl-cut. He was dripping blood from a crushed chest cavity and had blank eyes.
Another ghost.
Charlie stood shakily on her feet and rubbed at her nose. That was going to leave a bruise. She added another bruise to her collection as she bent down to collect her papers before they flew away and bonked her head into the young man's. He began to apologize profusely and helped gather her things that had fallen out of her bag when she had been knocked over.
"Really, it's fine. Accidents happen." She replied at his final apology, and he stood before her, gnawing on his lip as he tried not to apologize yet again.
"I feel so bad; I really should have been looking where I was going!" He tried, and she shook her head,
"It's fine. Honestly! I'm Charlie Dickens. It's nice to meet you…?"
"Nakajima Atsushi! But call me Atsushi, please." He took her outstretched hand with his own and bowed slightly; she nodded her head in return.
"So um, what floor are you going to?" Atsushi asked as he helped get Charlie's papers in order on the way to the elevator.
"Top floor, I need to talk to the Armed Detective Agency." She replied and managed to fit all her papers in her satchel along with the rest of her equipment. Beside her, Atsushi choked on air and sputtered.
"T-The Armed Detective Agency?! I work for them! I mean- I work there!" Charlie raised an eyebrow and glanced at the man floating beside Atsushi. He caught her eye, and his own eyes widened when she didn't look away. But before he could say anything, the elevator doors opened.
The floor was empty as Atsushi led her down the hall to the office the Armed Detective Agency occupied. He was babbling the whole way, telling her how he joined and just how great the place was. It was sweet seeing a boy untarnished by the darkness of the world like everyone else seemed to be. Finally, Atsushi reached the door and opened it, gesturing for her to enter first. She gave a small smile in thanks and entered.
It was chaos as usual. Charlie blinked at the sheer noise level coming from the man she recognized as Kunikida. He had a single ghost following him, a young boy in his early teens with brown hair. He was dressed in trousers and a bloodstained jumper, always following the bespectacled man around. He was a relatively new ghost, barely over a few years old, and if Charlie remembered right, his name was Taguchi Rokuzo. He was kind enough; he had declined any help from Charlie when she first met him as a ghost. Instead, he said he simply wanted to follow Kunikida and see where he took his life after Rokuzo's death.
The object of Kunikida's distress was a man with an oversized trench coat with curly brown hair. It was Dazai Osamu. One of the more infamous members of the Armed Detective Agency and the one with the most interesting ghost following him around. He was a tall man with reddish-brown hair and blank eyes. He had light stubble around his jaw and wore a striped suit underneath a large tan coat. She had yet to find out the ghost's name. She only knew he died of a gunshot wound, and he likely didn't know she existed. Even now, he hovered by Dazai, shaking his head exasperatedly at the man's antics and chuckled.
"Who did you need to see Charlie-san?" Atsushi broke her out of her musings, and she hid her surprise with a cough.
"Uh- Edogawa Ranpo. He's an old colleague of mine; I was hoping he could give me some insight on a case I'm working on." Atsushi's eyes widened slightly, and he gestured towards the desk covered in sweets.
"He's right over here. Are you a private investigator?" At this, Charlie laughed,
"No, no, I'm a coroner and mortician; I just do a little detective work for certain people on the side. I've worked with the Armed Detective Agency before. That's why I know Ranpo- there he is now." She commented and started towards the young man as she spotted him exiting the office of Fukuzawa.
Ranpo spotted her quickly and flung his arms out with a bright grin.
"Charlie!" He exclaimed and quickly patted her down for sweets and candy as she obediently held her arms out as he shoved his hands in her jacket and trouser pockets. After successfully extracting every sweet she had hidden away, he carried his new treasure over to his desk and dumped it in the growing pile.
"Now, what can I do for you?" He asked cheerily, more than happy to talk after shoving a cookie in his mouth. They were good friends after she solved a few cases before he did, and after learning about her ability, he had quickly claimed her as his personal ghost translator. If he couldn't solve an issue immediately with his ability, he called her to ask for any help with ghosts that might be lurking around. It wasn't often, but enough for her to call Ranpo her friend.
"I need help with a case. I was hoping for some insight. Six victims so far, all decapitated." Atsushi squeaked beside her as she laid out the gruesome details of the case. Ranpo listened diligently and nodded, one of the parts of their deal. He'd listen to her when she needed help with a case and give insight where he saw fit, and in return, she supplied him with snacks and ghost information. He was one of the very few people who knew about her ability and one of three in the Armed Detective Agency that knew. The other two being Yosano and Fukuzawa.
"An ability!" He declared after she finished showing him the papers in her satchel. She blinked,
"Seriously?"
"Of course I'm serious! The clues are all there. That sword is massive and hard for anyone but a behemoth or an ability to handle. Someone that tall would be conspicuous and easily noticed, especially around warehouses like the ones the victims were found at. So it makes more sense if it's an ability. I'm guessing it's one that summons an entity or something similar." Ranpo defended himself as he unwrapped a bag of pocky and munched on the chocolate-covered biscuit sticks. Charlie sat back and rubbed at her eyes underneath her glasses.
So it was an ability, that meant she would have to catch the person in the act to stop them. But first, she had to find the person; and confirm it was even an ability in the first place. That just threw a wrench in all of her plans. Maybe she could recruit some ghosts to help?
"That still doesn't explain the pumpkins found in every single chest cavity of the victims. Is that another side-effect of the ability?" She asked, and Ranpo shook his head,
"Nope. They were sewn in afterward. The ability just murdered the people; the ability user sewed them up afterward." He said, popping the 'p' in 'nope.' Charlie sighed and chewed on her lip. A migraine was forming at the thought of fieldwork to find this supposed ability user. Perhaps Chuuya could handle that? No, the Port Mafia would need her with her ability, which he still didn't know about.
"Well, thanks, Ranpo. You've been a huge help." She said, and he waved her off, happily shoving more sweets and snacks down his gullet as she turned to leave.
…
The ghost following Atsushi caught up to her outside of the Armed Detective Agency. Atsushi had stayed inside to continue working while the spirit left his side to corner Charlie in an alleyway.
"You can see us." He said matter of factly; Charlie nodded and adjusted her bag.
"I can; what of it? Do you need me to deliver a message or something?" She asked, and he paused, hesitating as if scared to say.
"I- I- I wasn't the best person to Atsushi… I just didn't want him to turn out like me! So I want to apologize, to say I'm proud of who he's become." Charlie narrowed her eyes; something about this didn't feel right.
"Wasn't the best person how?" The man paused, shoulders tensing, and his empty eyes squinted. But before he could say anything else, they were interrupted.
Dazai Osamu and his ghost rounded the corner, hands in their pockets and looking for all the world as if they owned the place. The spirit she had been talking to disappeared with a brief "she can see us" to the taller man next to Dazai. The ghost's head whipped around and met her gaze; she tried not to look at him too much. People tended to notice when her eyes started to wander.
"Well, well, well, what is a Port Mafia rat doing here?" Dazai mused, and Charlie swallowed. So he thought she was Port Mafia? Where did he get that idea?
"How do you figure I'm Port Mafia?" She retorted, and he let out an emotionless laugh,
"The paperwork you were showing Ranpo-san. It's Port Mafia." At this, Charlie huffed; he had her there.
"True true. But listen, I'm not Port Mafia. I just work for them from time to time. I'm a mortician and coroner. That's all, promise." She said, but Dazai didn't look convinced. In fact, he looked even more skeptical.
"And if I don't believe you?" He asked softly, and she adjusted her bag, preparing to hit him with it if things came to violence.
"I suppose you could ask Fukuzawa. He knows of me and my arrangement with the Port Mafia. Yosano Akiko and Edogawa Ranpo can both vouch for me as well." At this, Dazai's eyebrows raised just a tad. But then, he nodded as if satisfied.
"Very well then, if you have the Boss's word, then I suppose I'll have to take your word for it." He said and left with a surge of his trench coat.
The ghost who followed Dazai stayed behind as if to investigate. Charlie sighed for the millionth time that day and adjusted her glasses.
"Yes, I can see you. It's my ability." She said, and the ghost hummed.
"I gathered. What's your name?" He asked, and she shrugged,
"Charlie. Charlie Dickens. And you?"
"Oda. Oda Sakunosuke."
…
FairyTailWzard's OC's (these are mine! Do not steal them!):
Charlene "Charlie" Dickens: Sleep-deprived 23-year-old medical examiner works to solve homicides and perform for the police, Port Mafia, and the Armed Detective Agency. Ability: The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain; allows her to see and interact with the spirits of the dead.
Rudyard Kipling: Deceased Englishman in his 30s, unknown background. Ability: The Jungle Book; he can manifest his tattoos into real animals. He has the tattoos of a python, a Bengal tiger, and a giant bear.
Jacob Marley: He is Charlie's assistant in the morgue and during autopsies. He lives with his nephew Tim Cratchit and businessman Ebenezer Scrooge.
"Bones": Port Mafia member found dead
Katrina Van Tassel: Port Mafia member found dead
Ichabod Crane: Port Mafia member found dead. The only one not to come back as a ghost.
Diedrich Knickerbocker: Port Mafia member found dead. Ability: Storyteller-Basically whatever he reads/writes becomes a reality.